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Religion & politics

Author:

Martin Thomas

Pretty much all the left press other than Solidarity has denounced the election court decision against Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets in East London, and most of the left has backed Rabina Khan, Rahman's ally, for the new mayoral election on 11 June.

Does the left press reckon that Rahman didn't do what the court disqualified him for doing? Or that he did do it, but it was all right? It's hard to tell. I don't know if the writers in the left press even read the judgement.

Pretty much all the left press has denounced the election court decision against Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets in East London, and most of the left has backed his ally Rabina Khan in the new mayoral election.

Publications:

Author:

Sacha Ismail

None of the socialist organisations politically defending ousted Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman seriously analyse the judgement made against him by election commissioner Richard Mawrey. None mention George Galloway previously hailing a judgement by Mawrey (against the Labour Party and in favour of Galloway’s Respect) in 2007 — in a speech republished in full on the Socialist Worker website!

Socialists have no confidence in bourgeois judges, but the idea that the election commissioner who removed Tower Hamlets mayor Luftur Rahman is a ruling-class assassin or bug-eyed Islamophobe is absurd.

Author:

I don't like the idea that a privileged, conservative judge ousts Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman for alleged electoral malpractice, rather than a tribunal of the people he is supposed to serve.

I also don't know whether all the accusations against Rahman upheld by the judge are true or not. I am not going to take the judge's word for it. I am also not going to take the word of former councillors for George Galloway's Respect group that he is not.

The residents of Tower Hamlets, of which I am one, have plenty of reasons to want Rahman and his communalist politics out.

Residents of Tower Hamlets should be able to decide what they do or think without religious leaders guiding them.

Author:

Marieme Helie-Lucas

In March 2015, Algerian sociologist and revolutionary socialist-feminist Marieme Helie Lucas spoke to Solidarity, the newspaper of Workers' Liberty, about the Muslim far-right, and the struggle for secularism, women's rights, and socialism (click here). Here, we continue the conversation.

A continuing discussion on religious fundamentalism, feminism, secularism, and socialism.

Author:

A survey reported in the Guardian of 13 April has found that the UK is one of the world's least religious countries, as measured by people's opinions.

Only 30% of those surveyed in the UK said they were religious. 53% said they were not religious, 13% said flat-out that they were atheists, and the other 4% "didn't know".

Apart from China, where there would be government pressure against calling yourself religious, the only other countries to report smaller numbers of "religious" people were Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Japan.

The UK is one of the world's least religious countries, so a recent survey shows. So why do we have so many "faith schools", and an Established Church?

Author:

Charlotte Zalens

Afzal Amin, the Tory party candidate for Dudley North, has this week resigned after it was exposed that he had plotted with the English Defence League to stage a “fake” march which he could then claim the credit for getting called off.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Amin discussed with the EDL a plan to call a march against a planned mosque in the constituency, a march that would then be called off.

Amin was recorded saying he would take credit for persuading the EDL to call off the march. He also said he would be the EDL’s “unshakeable ally” in parliament.

Afzal Amin, the Tory party candidate for Dudley North, has this week resigned after it was exposed that he had plotted with the English Defence League to stage a “fake” march which he could then claim the credit for getting called off.

Author:

Marieme Helie-Lucas

Marieme Helie Lucas is an Algerian sociologist. She participated in the national liberation from French colonialism and was close to the then-underground PCA (Parti Communist Algerien, Algerian Communist Party). She worked as a senior civil servant during the first three years after independence, before leaving to teach at Algiers University for 12 years.

Algerian sociologist and socialist-feminist activist and writer Marieme Helie Lucas argues that the Muslim fundamentalism must be understood as a populist, far-right political movement.

Author:

Barry Finger

"Killing in response to insult, no matter how gross, must be unequivocally condemned. That is why what happened in Paris cannot be tolerated. But neither should we tolerate the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction." (Bill Donohue, Catholic League)

"Now, I think there’s a critical difference between solidarity with the journalists who were attacked, refusing to concede anything to the idea that journalists are somehow “legitimate targets,” and solidarity with what is frankly a racist publication." (Richard Seymour, Lenin’s Tomb)

US socialist Barry Finger contributes to the debate around the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the left's attitude to political Islam.